Primordial Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a hair raising shocker, landing October 2025 across top digital platforms

One frightening spiritual thriller from cinematographer / auteur Andrew Chiaramonte, summoning an age-old curse when unfamiliar people become tokens in a cursed ceremony. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube streaming, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango’s digital service.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a harrowing story of perseverance and prehistoric entity that will redefine the fear genre this fall. Directed by rising creative mind Andrew Chiaramonte, this edge-of-your-seat and immersive feature follows five characters who regain consciousness imprisoned in a remote wooden structure under the dark manipulation of Kyra, a female presence claimed by a 2,000-year-old holy text monster. Be prepared to be shaken by a audio-visual adventure that blends visceral dread with mystical narratives, premiering on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Hellish influence has been a historical element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that belief is flipped when the spirits no longer manifest from beyond, but rather deep within. This represents the most terrifying dimension of the victims. The result is a riveting mind game where the suspense becomes a unyielding contest between light and darkness.


In a isolated wilderness, five young people find themselves cornered under the ominous aura and haunting of a mysterious being. As the team becomes defenseless to combat her curse, left alone and hunted by creatures unfathomable, they are forced to reckon with their worst nightmares while the doomsday meter unceasingly ticks onward toward their destruction.


In *Young & Cursed*, mistrust deepens and connections dissolve, forcing each figure to scrutinize their essence and the concept of personal agency itself. The pressure mount with every passing moment, delivering a frightening tale that intertwines otherworldly panic with human fragility.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my desire was to extract primal fear, an curse that predates humanity, manifesting in our weaknesses, and dealing with a evil that peels away humanity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Portraying Kyra required summoning something darker than pain. She is oblivious until the evil takes hold, and that evolution is soul-crushing because it is so private.”

Streaming Info

*Young & Cursed* will be aired for streaming beginning October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google’s store, iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango on-demand—allowing streamers in all regions can get immersed in this haunted release.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just broadcast a new official trailer #2 for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its initial teaser, which has attracted over notable views.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has publicized that *Young & Cursed* will also be taken worldwide, bringing the film to thrill-seekers globally.


Make sure to see this gripping ride through nightmares. Explore *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to face these evil-rooted truths about the human condition.


For behind-the-scenes access, set experiences, and social posts straight from the filmmakers, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across Facebook and TikTok and visit the movie’s homepage.





Contemporary horror’s sea change: 2025 in focus American release plan integrates ancient-possession motifs, festival-born jolts, alongside brand-name tremors

Spanning last-stand terror suffused with biblical myth and onward to series comebacks alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is shaping up as the most variegated along with strategic year since the mid-2010s.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. major banners lay down anchors via recognizable brands, concurrently subscription platforms stack the fall with unboxed visions paired with ancestral chills. On the independent axis, the independent cohort is surfing the uplift from a top-tier 2024 festival cycle. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the off-peak lanes are managed with purpose. The fall stretch is the proving field, however this time, rollouts stretch into January, spring, and mid-summer. Viewers are primed, studios are disciplined, hence 2025 could be the most carefully plotted year to date.

Studio Playbook and Mini-Major Tactics: Prestige fear returns

The majors are assertive. If 2024 reset the chessboard, 2025 compounds the move.

Universal’s schedule opens the year with a marquee bet: a reconceived Wolf Man, steering clear of the antique European village, within a sleek contemporary canvas. Shepherded by Leigh Whannell and toplined by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this chapter binds the lycanthropy to domestic unraveling. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. landing in mid January, it advances a tactic to control the winter valley through premium horror, not dumps.

Spring delivers Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher adaptation turned minimalist horror show. Eli Craig directs starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it runs as red stained heartland dread with sharp satire. Behind the greasepaint sits a critique of small town suspicion, generational fracture, and vigilante justice. Initial fest notes point to real bite.

When summer tapers, Warner Bros. sets loose the finale from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Warrens are back with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the installment promises emotional closure while taking on one of the duo’s most infamous real life cases. Even with a familiar chassis, Chaves reportedly keys a sorrowing, contemplative note in the capstone. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

The Black Phone 2 steps in next. It was eyed for early summer, and shifting to October telegraphs confidence. Scott Derrickson is back, and the hallmarks that turned the first into a sleeper reappear: retro dread, trauma explicitly handled, and a cold supernatural calculus. Here the stakes rise, through a thicker read on the “grabber” legend and generational ache.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a release that travels on brand alone. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, seeking teens plus thirty something gamers. It arrives in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: Small budgets, sharp fangs

With cinemas leaning into known IP, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

A leading ambitious platform entry is Weapons, a forensic chill anthology splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. With Zach Cregger directing pairing Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. Premiering theatrically in late summer before a fall streaming drop, it may catalyze deconstruction threads like Barbarian.

On the quieter side is Together, a body horror chamber piece with Alison Brie and Dave Franco. Taking place in an isolated rental as a retreat goes wrong, the movie follows love and envy and self denial into corporeal breakdown. It is romantic, grotesque, and deeply uncomfortable, a three act spiral into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is a near certain autumn drop.

Also notable is Sinners, a Depression era vampire folk fable anchored by Michael B. Jordan. Shot in rich sepia tones and drenched in biblical metaphor, it channels There Will Be Blood against Let the Right One In. The story probes American religious trauma by way of supernatural allegory. Advance tests paint it as a watercooler streamer.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all mine grief and vanishing and identity, running metaphor first.

Deep Possession Currents: Young & Cursed

Landing October 2 across key streamers, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Penned and steered by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this entry turns to something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. An inward possession, not an outward spell, turns the trope and sets Young & Cursed inside a widening trend, intimate character work housed in genre.

Platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home position the film as a Halloween counter to sequel heavy theatricals and monster revivals. It is a smart play. No puffed out backstory. No legacy baggage. Only psychological menace, compressed and taut, tuned to binge and gasp cycles online. Inside spectacle, Young & Cursed may separate by silence, then rupture.

Festival Heat to Market Leverage

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They feel like launchpads now, not just showcases.

Fantastic Fest’s horror bench is deep this year. Primate bows as a tropical body horror opener with Cronenberg and Herzog echoes. Whistle, Aztec coded revenge folklore, may cap the fest blazing.

Midnight slots like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You earn noise for execution beyond quirky names. With A24 behind it, the satire of toxic fandom under a convention lockdown seems breakout bound.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance is expected to unspool its usual crop of grief soaked elevated horror, and Tribeca’s genre box tilting urban, social, and surreal.

Fest circuits are brand engines as much as discovery engines. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Legacy IP: Sequels, Reboots, and Reinvention

The legacy slate is stronger, and more deliberate, than in recent years.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, landing in July, re ups the 90s brand with a fresh lead and retro tone. Unlike prior entries, this one leans into camp and prom night melodrama. Think tiaras, stage blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, with a plan to deepen its techno horror mythos via new characters and AI terrors. The opener’s social chatter and SVOD hours justify Universal’s deeper play.

Also on deck is The Long Walk, from an early, punishing Stephen King work, from Francis Lawrence, it stands as a punishing dystopian allegory wearing survival horror, a march until death with no victors. With the right pitch, it could function as The Hunger Games for grown horror audiences.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trend Lines

Ancient myth goes wide
Lilith in Young & Cursed and Aztec curses in Whistle point to ancient texts and symbols. It eschews nostalgia to repossess pre Christian archetypes. Horror pushes past jump scares, it points to ancient evil.

Body horror retakes ground
Titles such as Together, Weapons, and Keeper return focus to the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation are standing in for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Platform originals gain bite
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Platforms invest in real scripts, real directors, and real campaigns. Releases like Weapons and Sinners are elevated to events, not just content.

Badges become bargaining chips
Festival status acts as leverage for exhibition, placement, and publicity. Without festivals in 2025, a horror film can evaporate.

Cinemas are a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. Everything else heads to PVOD or hybrid drops. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Near Term Outlook: Fall crush plus winter X factor

A cluster of Young & Cursed, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Black Phone 2, and Weapons in September and October equals saturation. Indies, including Bone Lake and Keeper, will battle for oxygen. Some may slide to early 2026 or switch platform lanes.

December anchors on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, yet a surprise streamer drop could appear in the final weeks. With some of the year’s biggest films leaning dark and mythic, the space for one final creature feature or exorcism flick is wide open.

The success of horror in 2025 hinges less on a single title and more on how a diverse slate reaches a scattered, segmented audience. The aim is not another Get Out chase, it is durable horror beyond gross.



The 2026 fright season: brand plays, non-franchise titles, as well as A busy Calendar calibrated for screams

Dek: The current genre calendar loads from day one with a January traffic jam, then carries through summer, and continuing into the year-end corridor, weaving brand equity, novel approaches, and data-minded counter-scheduling. Distributors with platforms are doubling down on smart costs, box-office-first windows, and shareable marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into culture-wide discussion.

Horror’s status entering 2026

This category has solidified as the consistent tool in release plans, a genre that can grow when it performs and still cushion the exposure when it doesn’t. After the 2023 year re-taught decision-makers that low-to-mid budget pictures can command the zeitgeist, the following year maintained heat with buzzy auteur projects and under-the-radar smashes. The carry fed into 2025, where re-entries and prestige plays confirmed there is a market for different modes, from returning installments to standalone ideas that carry overseas. The net effect for 2026 is a lineup that shows rare alignment across studios, with purposeful groupings, a pairing of household franchises and new pitches, and a revived attention on exclusive windows that boost PVOD and platform value on premium home window and OTT platforms.

Marketers add the horror lane now operates like a plug-and-play option on the schedule. The genre can bow on nearly any frame, yield a sharp concept for creative and social clips, and over-index with fans that line up on preview nights and stay strong through the next weekend if the feature hits. Coming out of a strike-driven backlog, the 2026 layout demonstrates conviction in that logic. The slate begins with a busy January corridor, then exploits spring through early summer for counterweight, while carving room for a fall run that carries into spooky season and past Halloween. The arrangement also shows the deeper integration of boutique distributors and streaming partners that can stage a platform run, create conversation, and go nationwide at the inflection point.

An added macro current is brand strategy across shared IP webs and veteran brands. Big banners are not just producing another entry. They are looking to package connection with a specialness, whether that is a graphic identity that signals a reframed mood or a casting pivot that ties a latest entry to a original cycle. At the alongside this, the helmers behind the top original plays are celebrating material texture, special makeup and grounded locations. That convergence gives 2026 a lively combination of known notes and novelty, which is how the films export.

How the majors and mini-majors are programming

Paramount marks the early tempo with two centerpiece releases that bookend the tonal range. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the director slot and Neve Campbell back at the heart, signaling it as both a succession moment and a rootsy character piece. Production is active in Atlanta, and the directional approach signals a fan-service aware treatment without rehashing the last two entries’ sibling arc. The studio is likely to mount a drive leaning on legacy iconography, first images of characters, and a two-beat trailer plan timed to late fall. Distribution is Paramount’s theatrical route.

Paramount also relaunches a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reforming, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a draw the campaign will stress. As a summer alternative, this one will seek general-audience talk through meme-ready spots, with the horror spoof format enabling quick adjustments to whatever tops trend lines that spring.

Universal has three differentiated projects. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a universe branch from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The story engine is straightforward, somber, and concept-forward: a grieving man brings home an synthetic partner that turns into a deadly partner. The date places it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with Universal’s team likely to revisit odd public stunts and short-cut promos that interweaves longing and anxiety.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under temporary titles in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public calendar currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which preserves a proper title to become an marketing beat closer to the first trailer. The timing holds ground in early May while larger tentpoles occupy other frames.

Capping the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film plants on October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele’s work are positioned as director events, with a hinting teaser and a later creative that set the tone without spoiling the concept. The late-October frame creates space for Universal to maximize pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then lean on the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, teams with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček leads, with Souheila Yacoub starring. The franchise has demonstrated that a gnarly, prosthetic-heavy method can feel top-tier on a moderate cost. Position this as a blood-soaked summer horror jolt that maximizes foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is robust. The studio places two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a bankable supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. Sony has changed the date on this title before, but the current plan locks it in late summer, where the brand has done well historically.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-emerges in what Sony is calling a from-the-ground-up reboot for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a sharper mandate to serve both franchise faithful and newcomers. The fall slot lets Sony to build materials around mythos, and creature builds, elements that can stoke PLF interest and convention buzz.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film maintains the filmmaker’s run of period horror defined by rigorous craft and period language, this time steeped in lycan lore. The company has already set the date for a holiday release, a public confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can open narrow then widen if early reception is strong.

How the platforms plan to play it

Streaming playbooks in 2026 run on stable tracks. Universal’s genre entries shift to copyright after a box-office phase then PVOD, a sequence that boosts both FOMO and platform bumps in the post-theatrical. Prime Video interleaves catalogue additions with world buys and limited runs in theaters when the data points to it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library curation, using featured rows, seasonal hubs, and programmed rows to sustain interest on overall cume. Netflix stays nimble about original films and festival wins, locking in horror entries closer to drop and positioning as event drops releases with surge campaigns. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, leverages a tiered of targeted cinema placements and swift platform pivots that drives paid trials from buzz. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before activating niche channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ treats carefully horror on a case-by-case basis. The platform has signaled readiness to pick up select projects with established auteurs or A-list packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet Oscar thresholds or to create word of mouth before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still draws on the 20th Century Studios slate, a meaningful lever for monthly engagement when the genre conversation peaks.

Specialized lanes

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 corridor with two brand extensions. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The angle is clean: the same foggy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult favorite, refined for modern audio and picture. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a fall corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a traditional cinema play for the title, an good sign for fans of the savage series and for exhibitors wanting edgy counter in the autumn stretch.

Focus will cultivate the auteur lane with Werwulf, escorting the title through autumn festivals if the cut is ready, then using the Christmas corridor to scale. That positioning has paid off for filmmaker-driven genre with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not locked many 2026-specific horror dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines regularly gel after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a sprinkle of late-summer and fall platformers that can grow if reception encourages. Be ready for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that bows at Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work in tandem, using boutique theatrical to prime evangelism that fuels their subscriber growth.

Balance of brands and originals

By count, 2026 is weighted toward the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness legacy awareness. The caveat, as ever, is diminishing returns. The preferred tactic is to brand each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is emphasizing core character and DNA in Scream 7, Sony is floating a from-scratch reboot for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is embracing a French-flavored turn from a buzzed-about director. Those choices move the needle when the audience has so many options and social sentiment whipsaws.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries keep oxygen in the system. Jordan Peele’s October film will be sold as a brand unto itself. Sam Raimi’s Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams into a crash-survival premise with Raimi’s impish dread. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf grounds itself in period and an unsparing tone. Even when the title is not based on known IP, the team and cast is familiar enough to spark pre-sales and early previews.

Three-year comps contextualize the method. In 2023, a big-screen-first plan that held distribution windows did not deter a day-and-date experiment from working when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror over-performed in PLF. In 2025, a rebirth of a beloved infection saga broadcast that global horror franchises can still feel recharged when they reframe POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which carries on January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The linked-chapter plan, with chapters filmed in sequence, gives leeway to marketing to link the films through character spine and themes and to keep assets alive without extended gaps.

Production craft signals

The filmmaking conversations behind this slate forecast a continued emphasis on practical, location-rooted craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not resemble any recent iteration of the property, a stance that matches the practical-effects sensibility he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Plan for a push that foregrounds mood and dread rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership sustaining smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a medieval world and era-correct language, a combination that can make for layered sound design and a spare, elemental mood on the big screen. Focus will likely preview this aesthetic in trade spotlights and below-the-line spotlights before rolling out a mood teaser that elevates tone over story, a move that has succeeded for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for red-band excess, a signature of the series that works internationally in red-band trailers and spurs shareable audience clips from early screenings. Scream 7 delivers a meta pivot that re-anchors on the original star. Resident Evil will rise or fall on creature execution and sets, which match well with booth activations and guarded reveals. Insidious tends to be a audio craft showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema value feel primary. Look for trailers that underscore pin-drop sound, deep-bass stingers, and dead-air cuts that work in PLF.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is packed. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a brooding contrast amid marquee brands. The month buttons with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-and-paranoia piece from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is serious, but the tone spread ensures lanes for each, and the five-week structure allows a clean run for each if word of mouth carries.

Pre-summer months prepare summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 debuts February 27 with legacy heat. In April, The Mummy reframes a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. The untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 rolls into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer heightens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is comedic and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 presents gnarly intensity. The counterprogramming logic is workable. The spoof can hit next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest delights older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have run their PLF course.

Shoulder season into fall leans brand. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously done well. Resident Evil follows September 18, a early fall window that still builds toward Halloween marketing beats. The Peele event grabs October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely pushed by a opaque tease strategy and limited asset reveals that trade in concept over detail.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a declaration that genre can stand up at Christmas when packaged as awards-flirting horror. Focus has done this before, platforming carefully, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to keep the film in the conversation into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while using holiday momentum and gift-card burn.

Film-by-film briefs

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production proceeds. Logline: Sidney returns to face a new Ghostface while the narrative resurfaces the original film’s founding notes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: legacy reset with a modern edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A heartbroken man’s synthetic partner shifts into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: news Filming finished for an early-year bow. Positioning: silicon scare with soul.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy broadens the canvas beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult emerges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed consecutively with the first film. Positioning: next step of a prestige infection saga.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man finds his way back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to meet a unsettled reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Complete with theatrical path. Positioning: fog-and-fear adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her difficult boss scramble to survive on a cut-off island as the control dynamic tilts and dread encroaches. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot complete. Positioning: star-centered survival shocker from a maestro.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to fright, rooted in Cronin’s hands-on craft and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting tale that refracts terror through a child’s wavering subjective view. Rating: TBD. Production: in the can. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven spectral suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A parody reboot that satirizes current genre trends and true-crime manias. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: lensing scheduled for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-appeal summer alternative.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites erupts, with an multinational twist in tone and setting. Rating: pending. Production: on location in New Zealand. Positioning: hard-hitting R entry designed for premium formats.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: pending. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a fresh family caught in ancient dread. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: reliable supernatural IP in a date that favors the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBA publicly. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: A restart designed to re-engineer the franchise from the ground up, with an focus on survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: in development with a locked date. Positioning: game-rooted reset with broad potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: to be announced. Logline: strategically hidden. Rating: TBA. Production: in progress. Positioning: teaser-forward filmmaker happening.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on historical diction and ancient menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preparation with Christmas frame locked. Positioning: prestige-grade holiday chiller with artisan honors in view.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a conventional theatrical window prior to platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why the moment is 2026

Three nuts-and-bolts forces shape this lineup. First, production that eased or migrated in 2024 called for breathing room in the schedule. Horror can fill those gaps quickly because scripts often are set in fewer locales, fewer large-scale effects sequences, and condensed timelines. Second, studios have become more strict about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of get redirected here these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently beaten straight-to-streaming premieres. Third, online chatter converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will mine turnkey scare beats from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips timed to Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that serve as influencer content. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Factor four is the scheduling calculus. Family and cape-heavy lanes thin out in early 2026, providing runway for genre entries that can command a weekend or stand as the older-leaning counter. January is the prime example. Four tonal lanes of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can capitalize on a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the strike zone. Most of the films above will live under the $40–$50 million ceiling, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where low-to-mid budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first stealth overachiever of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Count on a vigorous PVOD arc overall, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

Audience journey through the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers momentum and variety. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reawakens a Universal monster, May and June provide a paranormal one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a chilly, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain heat and footfall without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can sequence upward, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors are pleased with the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, efficient screen counts, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can qualify for PLF, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing visual texture, sound field, and camera work that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts shuffle. But the spine of 2026 horror is solid. There is recognizable IP where it plays, auteur intent where it matters, and a calendar that shows studios sense the cadence of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one final-hour specialty addition join the party. For now, the job is simple, cut sharp trailers, keep secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.